Super Football Champ

[Jen Ondrey]

Theplayer must first choose one of eight national football teams, followed by a star player from a choice of four available for each team. In the game, a win is needed to progress to the next game. A draw will end as a 'game over', with no option for penalties, but a chance to continue by restarting the game in which a win was not achieved. Each opposition team is chosen according to a tier strategy, with the player's team removed:

Thus, playing with Germany, the first two games will be Spain and France in some order, the second two games will be Netherlands and Brazil in some order, the third two games will be England and Italy in some order, and the seventh game will be Argentina. The game is completed when all seven other teams have been beaten. The level of difficulty increases the further the game progresses. The game notices when individual team players score a hat trick. Scoring hat tricks has the effect of increasing the difficulty as well.

The game gained some notoriety for giving players the ability to use violence (including punches, flying kicks and shirt pulling). Players could get away with this without giving away a free kick as long as the referee was either far enough away or knocked onto the floor. The referee punishes every foul with a yellow card. Red cards occur at the third, seventh and eleventh fouls, although every so often the game appears to miscount. No fourth red card is given by the referee. Besides the rough play, the game introduced the super shot, which occurs with 30 seconds remaining or less and when the score is tied or the player is losing by 1 goal. The star player chosen kicks a shot that pushes the goalkeeper into the stands.

A version of the game was released on the Super NES and Amiga by Domark.[1] A ZX Spectrum version was planned but never released.[2] The game was released in its original arcade form on the Taito Legends 2 compilation for the Windows PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game was also re-released in 2023 on a handheld manufactured by Taito containing their arcade games.[3]

The arcade version was ranked highly, with magazine Zero giving it a 4/5.[4] The Amiga version was given a 64% by Amiga Power, calling the gameplay simple and noting the graphics were not as good as the arcade version.[5] The One Amiga gave it a 71% saying that the Amiga version did not match the smoothness and speed of the original arcade version.[6]

An interesting tidbit of history that I looked into this afternoon: No Super Bowl Champion has ever won in a state where the NCAA Football Champion also won in the same season. There's been some close calls over the years, and I'm specifically looking at the overlapping season, as opposed to when the games were played within the calendar year.

Since the Super Bowl was first played for the 1966 season, two times has a team from the state of the NCAA Champ even played in the Super Bowl: in 1967 the Raiders lost to the Packers while USC won the championship outright, and in 1970 the Cowboys lost to the Colts while Texas won a shared championship with both Nebraska and Ohio State (#1 Coaches, #3 AP). Obviously, when teams like Alabama, Oklahoma, Clemson, or Nebraska win, they don't have a corresponding NFL team to root for within their state. And while there's certainly a shared fanbase between Texas and Dallas, I'd imagine it's much smaller for USC and Oakland given the distance. Still, neither time did the pro team win the Super Bowl.

So, our current situation this football season seems to be unique, even beyond the historical runs of our Wolverines and the Detroit Lions. If the Lions win this Sunday and find themselves in the Super Bowl, they'll only be the 3rd team ever to do it the same season as an in-state college champion (and the first in over 50 years!). If they find a way to win the whole damn thing, not only will I probably just die on the spot, but we'll be the first dual-champion ever! That the campus and team are so well-connected and within the same metro makes it extra-special. What a crazy, incredible football season.

Yes, but she brought the attention on herself. She's currently in the midst of a blockbuster world tour that includes a major motion picture concert film and dozens of shows at massive stadiums, each in front of sold out audiences of tens of thousands of fans. If her goal was to live a quiet, retiring life out of the spotlight and away from public attention, she's going about it all wrong. She doesn't even have to go to the games. That's a choice.

I thought about this the other day. Thanks for doing the research! My feeling was this year is a unicorn for a state. If the Lions can pull off a Stupor Bowl win then our beloved state is in rarified air.

Winning the Division AND a playoff game feels like we got to pet a unicorn. Winning a second playoff game was like riding that beautiful beast. I think the Detroit fan base will explode into a cloud of sparkles if the Lions win the Super Bowl.

I was thinking that. There's a ton of memes out there that basically say the same thing depending on the person making it.

The Lions/Michigan football finally won a Super Bowl/National Championship, and all it took was sacrificing the Pistons/Michigan basketball.

Meanwhile, I am not a super follower of hockey but it kind of looks like the Red Wings and Michigan hockey are aligned as well, both well positioned to make the post season but not really make much of a run once there. But the hockey fans can correct me if I am wrong on that.

That's not exactly true for the Browns. The original Browns are currently the Baltimore Ravens. I don't care who gets to claim the history, the actual team lineage left town. The current Browns are an expansion* team from 1999. Jacksonville began in 1995, and are actually older.

Of course, in the men's basketball, in 1989 Michigan won the NCAA championship and the Pistons won the NBA championship. This has also happened a few times for California with UCLA and the Lakers, not sure of any other examples.

I was thinking about this the other day, as well! If it does happen, I hope someone creates a "Football Runs Through Michigan" shirt/hoodie. My vision for the shirt would be the state of Michigan in the background with both teams logos over their respective trophies and the verbiage under the state. I would love to see a prototype from some of you creative types out there.

Minor quibble: the football national championship is not awarded by the NCAA. The CFP is run by the conferences and the NY6 bowls, not by the NCAA. The NCAA doesn't award a championship of any kind at the FBS level (they do in FCS and lower divisions, however). That's why, in contrast with basketball, the football championship is only referred to as the "National Championship" and not the "NCAA Championship" or "NCAA National Championship."

They do insofar as regulation is concerned. The CFP games are subject to the NCAA's rules and compliance regime just like the championship tournament of any other collegiate sport. But unlike March Madness (for example) the CFP isn't actually run by the NCAA. Unlike the NCAA Tournament selection committee, The CFP selection committee isn't employed by the NCAA.

This is great work, OP! Texas' and Ohio's 1970 championship is because the Coaches' and NFF Polls were before the bowls back then. Nebraska won their bowl game, and their only blemish was a tie at USC. Further, SoCal didn't have Raiders fans back then. The Lions have a chance to really do something special here.

Every September, the road to McKinney, Texas for the DII football championship begins for every team, but only two reach the pinnacle in December. Here's a look at how the DII football championship tournament works.

What has changed is the field. The original DII football championship consisted of eight teams, which lasted 15 years until eight more teams were added in 1988. In 2004, the field again expanded from 16 to 24, and in 2016 it added four more teams to get to the current 28-team format we see today.

Unlike most other DII sports that have eight regions, DII football is broken down into four Super Regions. Since four conferences make up each Super Region, there are no automatic qualifiers in the DII football championship, another trait unique to DII football compared to other DII tournaments.

Originally, the top seven seeds in each regional ranking advance to the DII football championship tournament. The top seed in each of the four Super Regions gets a first-round bye. Once the teams reach the national semifinals, the four teams are seeded No. 1 through No. 4.

In 2019, the DII football committee changed the seeding process. The changes were in the No. 5-7 seeds, where the committee has the flexibility to move those teams out of region or in-region to a closer destination to cut down on flights. For example, the traditional No. 2 vs. 7 and No. 4 vs. 5 regional matchups could become No. 2 vs. 5 and No. 4 vs. 7 if the travel plans make more sense. For more on those changes, click here for our interview with the committee.

The last few years have seen a lot of Gulf South Conference representation. Ferris State defeated Valdosta State in 2021 in rematch of the 2018 national championship game. West Florida won its first title in 2019, which was its second trip to the title game since 2017. North Alabama lost the championship game in 2016 before jumping to the FCS marking five-straight years of GSC dominance. However, the record of six titles, held by Northwest Missouri State, stays in the MIAA.

Wayne Cavadi has covered all things Division II sports for NCAA.com since 2016. He hosts the weekly DII Nation Podcast available on Spotify and YouTube. His work has appeared on Bleacher Report, MLB.com, AJC.com, SB Nation and FoxSports.com and in publications like The Advocate and Lindy's Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @WayneCavadi_D2.

In a segment on 'NFL Total Access', NFL Network's Shaun O'Hara examines the playoff picture for both the NFC and AFC to determine whether he thinks the Baltimore Ravens or San Francisco 49ers have a tougher path to this year's Super Bowl as the No. 1 seed of their respective conference.

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